The Fish

I'm not in the least bit verbose, loquacious, garrulous or periphrastic, yet here we are.

I like Gelhardt from Leeds, but pinning your hopes on him to fire you to the Play Offs and beyond is setting yourself up for a pretty cold cup of Yorkshire Disappointea

Look at how we pursued Botman. We could have paid the extra money for him in January, but he wasn't convinced yet, the selling club dug their heels in and it turned out that we didn't need him. Fast Forward 6 months and we sign him for a fair price, the selling club are happy enough because they've had time to sort out a replacement, he's happy because he's had more time to be wooed/say his goodbyes/larn yesel Geordie and all that. This Franca kid, we 100% could have paid the £25m they were apparently asking for, but maybe he needs a little more convincing, the selling club have dug their heels in and that number 8 position is somewhere we're fairly well stocked right now. I also think the less we act like the richest club on the planet, the better business we'll get done. Can't imagine Newcastle spunking half a billion quid in a panic, disrupting the market place and fucking themselves in FFP terms. I honestly think the target for this season would have been pushing for Europe, a target that barring a catastrophe we should comfortably achieve. .

I'm now at that mindset where, if we lose the Final I'll not be particularly disheartened. 18 months ago we were among the favourites to go down, managed by an oaf, owned by a disinterested cunt. We played terrible football, there was a huge disconnect between the club and the fans, a lot of us were genuinely considering giving up on the whole enterprise. Now look at us; in the top 4 on merit, managed by a fairly bland but supremely professional young 'manager of the year' candidate, owned by interested cunts. We play good football, the fans and club haven't been so simpatico for over a decade and dunno about the rest of you but I have more interest in football in general than I have for years. Say we lose to Man Utd in the final, it's still a huge net gain. Say we finish 5th, that's still a massive, massive improvement. We were an embarrassment in the Premier League, now we're being run better than the majority. We are genuine CL contenders and will be again. We're signing exciting players and will sign more.

That's when you drop yours upside down.

Like a 4-2-3-1? Pope Trippier Schar Botman Burn Longstaff Joelinton Almiron --- Isak --- Gordon Wilson

Howe's not really been one to throw new signings straight in. I'd expect ASM or even Murphy to get the nod.

I think before the window I said that for me Striker, backup Rightback and DM were priorities. We've signed a wide forward/midfielder and a back up rightback. I'm pretty happy about that, sure it would have been great to sign some exciting young talent from Brazil, or grabbing Maddison off Leicester. But I trust the people running the club. Bruno missing 3 games is rough, but with Longstaff, Joelinton, Joe Willock, Anderson, we have 4 central mids, and we've been pushing a central midfielder out onto the left wing for the recent games. Longstaff will drop deeper, Joelinton and Willock will play in front of him. Gordon/ASM on the left, Almiron/Isak on the right, Wilson/Isak up front. Gordon is relentless in the press so will add balance to our attack, Ashby looks a real prospect at rightback so we can give Trippier a bit of a rest during games too. I'd say B-

Miguel de Souza, 15 appearances, 0 goals.

Ornstein says Gallagher's going nowhere.

Chelsea have a ridiculously bad record on transfers, but because they've been propped up it's not really damaged them. Yet.

Was just having a look at their business in the last 7 seasons. They've made significant losses in 5/7 seasons from 2017-2023. 19/20 they sold Hazard for £100m, and 2021/22 they sold a few players to offset £99m of the £99.4m they spent on Lukaku. They've consistently made significant losses on their transfers as well. I get that a player's value isn't simply measured in terms of fees paid vs fees recouped, but Holy Shit; £15m on Barkley, barely played released on a free. (-£15m) £30m on Rudiger, mainstay of the team, free transferred. (-£30m) £33m on Drinkwater, barely played, free transfer 5 years later. (-£33m) £34m on Batshuayi, barely played and only recouped £8m from loan and transfer fees. (-£26m) £35m on Bakayoko, £11m from loan and transfer fees. (-£24m) £46m on Timo Werner, sold for £17.5m 2 seasons later. (-£28.5m) £100m Romelu Lukaku in 2021/22 loan fee of c£7m the following season. (-£93m) And that's ignoring the wages they've dished out to these players.

Gordon is a very different prospect than ASM on the flanks. Gordon is a left sided Almiron and that would allow us to play Joelinton back in midfield as Gordon would be doing a lot of pressing on that flank. A level of pressing that ASM can't match.

Who are their saleable assets? Because it's not Cucurella. If they hadn't just splurged on a stack of new players they could have got big money for the likes of Gallagher, Ziyech etc. but now? Not so much. They've definitely bought some very good players, and Potter is a very good coach. But they need CL football, and soon.

Yeah exactly, they're just throwing players at Potter who'll do his best (which I think is pretty good) but this slipshod approach is surely doomed to fail. When it does they'll have a bloated squad on phat wages that some new manager will have to get a tune out of because they've exhausted their FFP wriggle room. Nobody will be pay top dollar because everyone will know that Chelsea have to sell.

that was just off the cuff, I was going out on a limb.

Russia was still at war with Ukraine during Trump's shitocracy. Trump's election didn't give Putin pause, why would it? Trump was exactly who Russia wanted in place; a moronic, infantile, demagogue.

Yup, they're bang in trouble without future increases to their income. With Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle and Tottenham, that's 7 teams for 4 spots. Regardless if they're improved by this splurge or not, that's still a big risk. Also, how committed are they to Potter? Say he doesn't pan out have they got a coach who plays a similar style in mind to take over? Going off this transfer window, I'd guess not.

Putin didn't "do fuck all while Trump was President", it's just that the continuing war wasn't front page news. Also, Putin was up to all kinds of shit away from the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Better than Pickford? Not much of a stretch.

Chelsea are up to £490m for the season, so far.

Barreca?

League Cup size.